Recycling strategy should lead to cheaper goods, Ontario government says
Ontario’s new waste diversion strategy, which scraps eco fees, should make consumer goods cheaper in the province.

thestar.com
Nov. 26, 2015
By Robert Benzie

It will come too late for Black Friday sales, but Ontario’s new waste diversion strategy, which scraps eco fees, should make consumer goods cheaper in the province.

That’s the message from Environment and Climate Change Minister Glen Murray.

“This makes the cost of recovering materials and the end life of the product a normal price of business, incents business to drive it down as a cost to make consumer products more affordable,” Murray said Thursday.

“And it makes them responsible for the end life of the product. The fundamental principle here is called extended producer responsibility,” he said, adding the changes will also be good for business.

“You know Unilever or Procter & Gamble can take their old containers, packaging materials and repurpose them as part of their industrial process so that shift from municipalities to producers being responsible should drive costs down.”

As first disclosed by the Star, Murray is overhauling the waste diversion system, phasing out eco fees on consumer electronics and other products over the next two to four years and encouraging manufacturers to package less.

Those levies - ranging from 7 cents for a cellphone to $39.50 for a large television - are essentially set by industry cartels, meaning there is no incentive to use less packaging or more recyclable materials.

At the same time, consumers were saddled with the controversial fees that appeared on receipts like taxes.

Murray’s changes will eventually scrap Waste Diversion Ontario, the industry-funded agency overseeing provincial recycling programs.

Under the new model, companies will have to include recycling costs in a product’s retail price-tag.

Ontario has the worst recycling rates in Canada, diverting just 25 per cent of waste, which hurts the economy because recovery generates much more employment than disposal.

The new legislation, which should pass next spring, will also usher in improvements to municipal Blue Box programs allowing additional packaging and products to be recycled.

Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown expressed concern that eco charges will not be visible for Ontario shoppers, which is “inherently dishonest.”

“It’s not eliminating a cost for consumers, it’s simply hiding it. Whether a tax is public or transparent or whether it’s hidden, it’s still a tax,” said Brown.

“If the government was actually going to get rid of eco fees I would applaud them,” he said.

NDP MPP Jagmeet Singh (Bramalea-Gore-Malton) said the Liberals “had to do something . . . because the existing system is clearly flawed.”

“Eco fees . . . have hurt consumers and it’s not helped in reducing waste, which is what it was intended to do,” said Singh.